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LA GRANDE, Ore. – The No. 11 Eastern Oregon University men's basketball team welcomes Southern Oregon University to Quinn Coliseum for the first round of the Cascade Collegiate Conference Tournament Wednesday.

THE SERIES
* Southern Oregon holds a 95-74 lead in the all-time series over EOU.
* Wednesday's game 170th meeting will be the second-most against any other program for Eastern. The Mountaineers and Western Oregon have met 187 times.
* Eastern Oregon has won five straight over Southern Oregon.
* EOU has won the last four meetings by a combined 97 points, an average margin of 24.25.

QUICK HITS
* The Mountaineers are 11-0 when opponents have scored less than 70 points, and 23-1 under Isaac Williams in the same stat.
* EOU is 41-2 in its last 43 regular season games at home.
* The Mountaineers are 63-7 in the past 70 games in Quinn.
* Eastern is 17-2 when leading at halftime this season.
* EOU is 21-0 this season when leading with five minutes left in regulation, and 20-1 when leading with 10 minutes left.
* Thomas McCarthy is 17 made three-pointers from breaking Mark Carrollo's career school record.

POSTSEASON NOTES
* EOU is 22-36 all-time in the postseason.
* The Mountaineers are 9-4 in the CCC tournament all-time.

ABOUT THE RAIDERS
The Raiders (14-15) (6-12) slide into the postseason on a three-game losing streak. SOU has lost six of its last seven and nine of its last 11. Jordan Highland leads Southern into La Grande. The junior has scored in double digits 25 times this season and has hit the 20-point plateau six times. Highland has scored a combined 27 points against Eastern this season. Two of the top defenses matchup with Eastern's top in the CCC field goal percentage defense meets Southern's third-ranked defense.

ABOUT THE CCC TOURNAMENT
The preseason conference favorite, Oregon Tech, rolls into the CCC tournament as the regular season champion and top seed. The Owls host Concordia in the first round. EOU and Southern meet in the 2-7 game. Warner Pacific and Northwest finished tied in conference play, but it was the Knights that swept the season series, thus giving them the higher seed nod. Third-seeded WPC welcomes six-seed Corban, and The College of Idaho travels to Northwest in the 3-6 game.

LAST TIME OUT
The No. 13 Eastern Oregon University men's basketball team finished its regular season with a win at The Evergreen State College Saturday, 95-89. Eastern was led by Thomas McCarthy's 21 points. The senior surpassed Ryan Orton's 15-year-old three-pointers in a single season record, as he finished 6 of 12 from behind the arc. McCarthy has now made 94 three-pointers this season, and needs 17 more to break Mark Carollo's career mark. Jamar Johnson added 17 points for EOU. The junior was 11 of 14 from the free-throw line. JC Cook chipped in 16 points on 6 of 12 shooting from the field. Cody Thurmond dished out four assists, and Jeff Ranstrom grabbed 10 rebounds. Evergreen shot 42 percent from the field, while EOU made 51 percent of its attempts from the field.

RECORD WATCH
The Mountaineers are doing their share of setting new records this season. EOU has already broke the school mark for three-pointers in a single season nad single game records of threes made, points, and rebounds. Eastern is 129 points shy of breaking the record for points in a season. Thomas McCarthy broke Eastern Oregon's 15-year-old school record of 88 three-pointers in a single season. The senior has hit 94 of his 223 three-pointers this season. The Prineville, Ore. native has connected on 189 of his 478 career three-pointers. Mark Carollo holds the school career record when he made 210 of his 606 shots.

DIALING LONG DISTANCE
Eastern is hitting its share of shots from behind the perimeter this season. The Mountaineers are first in NAIA Div. 2 in three-pointers made per game (10.28), and second in total three-pointers made (288). EOU is ninth in the country in three-point percentage (38%). Jamar Johnson is third in the country with his 46 percent shotting from three-point range. Thomas McCarthy is seventh in NAIA Div. 2 with 94 three-pointers, making 3.3 per game which is seventh in the nation.

THEY GO HARD IN THE PAINT
Eastern Oregon is sixth in NAIA Div. 2 in total rebounds per game (43.1) and rebound margin (8.9). The Mountaineers rank third in the country in defensive rebounds per game (29.2). EOU leads the conference in defensive rebounds per game and total rebound margin by almost two rebounds per game over second place Warner Pacific.

ONE MORE FOR TWENTY
Eastern has clinched its fifth straight 20-win season. Before the five-year streak, the Mountaineers had four 20-win seasons in the 81-year history of men's basketball, with the last coming in 1965-66. This season's squad became the 20th team to reach 16 wins in school history. The 2007-08 team had the school's best record at 26-6. That team was 17-3 after 20 games, and started 25-4.

TOP 25 STREAK CONTINUES
The Eastern Oregon University men's basketball team climbed to No. 11 in the NAIA Div. 2 Top 25 Monday. The Mountaineers climbed two spots after finishing the regular season with a pair of victories at then-ranked No. 18 Northwest University last Friday and Evergreen State the following night. EOU received 270 points in the poll, 18 more than last week. Eastern rides the longest winning streak in the Cascade Collegiate Conference, seven games, into the postseason. Eastern appears in the Top 25 for a school-record 21st straight time. The Mountaineers have been in the Top 25 in 27 of the last 28 polls. EOU has been in the Top 25 in every poll dating back to last season's preseason poll on Oct. 26 when it received votes. The Mountaineers had their best preseason ranking in the 2008-09 season when they started at No. 6. EOU climbed to No. 3 in the national poll that season, the highest in school history.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Three Mountaineers have received Red Lion Cascade Collegiate Conference Players of the Week honors this season. Travares Peterson, Anthony Brown, and Thomas McCarthy each were awarded. Peterson took the award last week, McCarthy was honored for his efforts from Dec. 27 from Jan. 2, and Brown was the recipient for his Jan. 10 to Jan. 16 performances.

LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARIES
Eastern Oregon is one of five teams to have made it to the past three Sweet 16 rounds at the NAIA Div. 2 National Tournament. Two programs in those five, Oregon Tech and EOU, are from the Cascade Collegiate Conference. There are only a dozen teams that have made the national tournament in each of the past three years, including Eastern.